Category Archives: Thoughts and Reflections

Things have really slowed down here in the Brain Corral. Projects and tasks have been rolling in faster than my ability to document them. I am sure all of my “fans” have been most disappointed by lack of updates. Well fans, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this likely will be my last post in the ‘ol corral. June 13th, 2014 will be my last day of employment at UVM, which will put me a two weeks shy of 14 years of employment in Catamount country.

It has been a long road, with much territory covered. When I started, I was the new “NetWare Guy”, responsible for Novell file and print services, and some antivirus management. Since then, I have plowed though:

Two major directory service changes, and several upgrades (NetWare bindery to eDirectory, to Active Directory on Server 2003, and AD upgrades all the way though Server 2012 R2)

a VDI deployment with several minor upgrades (VMware View 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3… over it’s <2 year history, that's an upgrade every six months!)

A SharePoint deployment with three major upgrades (STS 2 to WSS 3, to a 64-bit scale-out farm upgrade, to SPF 2010, and an incomplete 2013 Standard Edition upgrade)

three Windows deployment technology changes with many version upgrades (Ghost to RIS, to BDD, which later became MDT/LiteTouch)

a major deployment of VMware vSphere and vCenter, with many version upgrades (vCenter 2.5, 4.0, 4.1, 5.09, 5.1, 5.5). From it’s humble beginnings, vSphere now hosts over 90% of our non-research computing operating systems!

four major changes in Windows enterprise patch management methods (SUS, WSUS, WSUS with Secunia CSI, SCCM 2012 with ADR and third party “Application packages” with supercedence rules). We went from full MS-only non-enforced patch management, to adding support for third party applications, to fully automated patch management.

Two major whole disk encryption projects (PGP Whole Disk, followed by BitLocker with the “Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Management” add-on)

It has been a rocky road, full bumps and potholes. Fortunately, with the assistance of my truly excellent teammates, we have made this journey with very few significant breakdowns. Central IT has perhaps quintupled in size and importance over the past 14 years. I am proud to have been part of this explosive period in IT at UVM, and honored to have worked with such highly intelligent and motivated people.

I wish you all the very best of luck with all future endeavors, and hope that you will keep in touch, even though I will be on the west coast of America (not just the west coast of New England) at Stanford University.

Oliver: I want to grow be a grown up now.
Mom: But Oliver, being a kid is great, too. You should enjoying being a kid while you still can. Why do you want to be all grown up?
Oliver: So that I can have babies, too.
Mom: Oh Oliver, that is so sweet, but what would you do with a baby?
Oliver: [With that mischievous look of naughty gears turning in his head] I would… put it in a cement mixer! And then put it on the train tracks!